Light beacons have been provided with Fresnel collimating lenses which provide cylindrical beams from one or more light sources located centrally in the collimating lens on a raised structure, such as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,221,162, issued Nov. 30, 1965 to Heenan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,678, issued Jul. 30, 2002, to Verdes et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,490, issued Aug. 17, 1993, to Ferng. It is important that the light from the one or more light sources fills the collimating lens of the beacon so that light from the collimating lens will exit the beacon having the desired output performance while satisfying any regulatory output requirements.
Improved optical systems have been developed to assist in directing illumination to the collimating lens using multiple LEDs mounted on different sides of a post. Such mounted LEDs direct illumination along different angles towards a cylindrical Fresnel lens via focus shifting optics, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,662,702 of Mar. 4, 2014, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,840,268 of Sep. 23, 2014, both to Datz et al. However, mounting on such post is complex in that it requires four vertically disposed circuit boards with LEDs at a desired height in the beacon. Mounting further requires multiple pads of heat conductive material to carry heat away from the LEDs down to the beacon's base in order to ensure reliable LED operation. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an LED beacon with a raised structure that improves management of LED generated heat so as to avoid the need for heat transfer material along circuit boards, while assuring proper filling of the beacon's lens with LED light.